A second resident of The Rosslyn has died in hospital.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson says the death involves an 84-year-old man who passed away over the weekend, marking the city’s 28th death related to COVID-19.
Hamilton Public Health had previously confirmed that a 70-year-old resident had died as a result of the virus on Friday.
In all, 63 residents and 20 staff from the east Hamilton retirement home have tested positive for COVID-19 since an outbreak was declared in the facility on May 10.
The Rosslyn was emptied out last Friday and all but two of its residents were transferred to local hospitals to receive care because of staffing challenges
Twenty-seven residents were transferred to St. Joseph’s and 25 residents were transferred to Hamilton General.
Dr. Richardson says eight residents were already in hospital receiving care at the time of the transfer, which started on Friday afternoon and was completed early Saturday morning, over the course of eight hours.
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Two residents opted not to go to hospital and to instead arrange alternate accomodations.
Dr. Richardson says it’s a demonstration of how quickly the virus can spread in such congregate settings where residents are older and “more vulnerable.”
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Dr. Richardson also stated, during an emergency operations centre update on Tuesday afternoon, that retirement homes are “not really well set up to manage outbreaks” and to have supplies on hand of personal protective equipment (PPE).
In the case of The Rosslyn, she added that “they did not appear to be effectively monitoring the residents in terms of illness.”
It’s not clear at this point when residents will be able to return to the home.
Dr. Richardson says the operator is working with the retirement home regulatory authority and “they will have their own conditions that the home will need to meet to move forward.”
She adds that the city has also issued an order, under the health protection and promotion act, and “will be requiring that they meet the conditions of that order before people are allowed back into their homes.”
That includes “undertaking a deep cleaning of the facility, making sure they have a sustainable PPE supply and infection control practices and making sure they have the staffing so they can carry those out.”
Six new cases of COVID-19 are reported in Hamilton on Tuesday, bringing the city’s total to 599.
There are currently 12 institutional outbreaks.
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